Keeping it together, plan first.

My husband asked, pleaded, and maybe even begged me to write a meal plan for the first 10 years of our marriage. Believe it or not, I refused. I felt it would stifle my creativity in kitchen. Well, let me be the first to say it didn't. It actually increased my dependence on processed foods. I would come home from work and pull something out of the pantry and cook it up. Maybe I would add a salad, or add a canned vegetable. This thought process led to unhealthy eating patterns, which led to weight gain (especially with me), and finally led us to be very unhealthy.
So what made me change my mind? Well, actually it was Rachel Ray made me changed my mind. I know, I know, many of my foodie friends are rolling their eyes. I really wanted to purchase 365 Meals: No Repeats. He made me a deal I couldn't refuse, buy the book and cook every meal from it. OOH Deal! As soon as I got the book I went to work right away, but I was confused. Where do I begin? What do I do? There were so many recipes and variations, and I'll admit it I was lost. So I took I deep breath, and started to scour the book, with a calendar in hand, and mapped out each month. The most amazing thing began to happen, I became addicted. You can ask my husband once I started there was no stopping me. I would plan for special events (birthdays, anniversaries, church potlucks), and eventually after 1 1/2 years we ate our way through the book. I mean this book travelled with us to New Orleans! There were times where we did have take out and left overs night; time constraints, kids' activities, and meetings (hence, the 1 1/2 years instead of 365 days).
So how do you start? You will need the following: 1. a calendar (I use my publisher program's calendar setting) 2. recipes or ideas for recipes. You can plan all of your meals a month at a time, or a week at a time. You can use recipes from websites. www.eatnourishing.com, www.nourishinggourmet.com (the Pennywise Platter is awesome), and www.tastykitchen.com are some of my favorites. I recently found a meal planning website called www.foodonthetable.com that I am researching. I look forward to keep this addiction going. If I find recipes I will post them in this blog. In the meantime enjoy organizing and planning. You will find meals on the table will get easier, and healthy eating gets simpler.